Radial counterflow carbon capture and flue gas scrubbing

ABSTRACT

Carbon capture is effected by mechanical means, producing out of flue gas a concentrated, cleaned, and cooled stream of carbon dioxide. This is a new method of carbon capture which avoids the limitations of known cryogenic, membrane, or chemical capture methods. 
     A mechanically assisted turbulent flue gas scrubber comprises counter-rotating coaxial centrifugal impellers and a shrouding tank for receiving the flow from between the impellers. Feed is at the axis of rotation. Axial extraction of nitrogen and water vapor is driven by an axial pump and by back pressure from the tank while radially outward flow of carbon dioxide and scrubbing targets is driven by the impellers. Scrubbing of the concentrated targets is in high turbulence during a long residence time. 
     Tiny centrifugation effects of innumerable turbulent eddy vortices in a shear layer between the impellers and in the tank are integrated by the forcing regime of the impellers and the axial pump. Radial vortices caused by shear between the counter-rotating impellers provide coherent sink flow conduits for axial extraction of nitrogen ballast. Fine fly ash (PM-2.5) scrubbing is concurrent with NOx and SOx scrubbing and with carbon capture. Mechanically assisted and highly turbulent wet scrubbing shear thickens fine fly ash and precipitates into clumps of sludge, so the wastewater stream is easily treatable and requires no large storage tank.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/827,634, filed Jul. 11, 2007, the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to moving centrifugal gas separation andto mechanically assisted highly turbulent scrubbing of gaseous emissionstreams. No membranes or other dead-end filtration media nor any meansfor electrostatic separation are involved. This is a new method ofcarbon capture, suitable for high volume hot and dirty low concentrationwaste gas streams such as flue gas from coal-fired power plants.

The separative method of the present invention comprises differentialradial advection of light and heavy fractions. Light fractions(including nitrogen and water vapor) are advected radially inward byback pressure and axial suction, while simultaneously heavy fractions(including carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx, and particulates) are advectedradially outward by centrifugal impellers. Flue gas from coal firedpower plants is the principal application, but other industrial wastegases, as well as natural gas, can be centrifugally separated andcleaned by the apparatus and method disclosed herein.

In U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,377 to McCutchen (1997) I disclosed aperipherally fed mechanically driven radial counterflow device for fluidmixture separation. Axial feed and application to flue gas forparticulate and other scrubbing is a non-obvious improvement with theadvantage that in a peripherally fed device such as McCutchen '377, theseparated heavy fractions would mix with incoming feed. Therefore carboncapture would be impossible.

By the term gaseous emission stream is meant a gaseous fluid mixturesuch as flue gas from coal-fired utility and industrial boilers, exhaustfrom combustion of natural gas, diesel fuel, or oil, as well asemissions from municipal and medical waste incinerators, cement and limekilns, metal smelters, petroleum refineries, glass furnaces, andsulfuric acid manufacturing facilities. A gaseous emission streamcomprises non-condensible gases, such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen, aswell as condensible gases and aerosols. The various constituents,whether gaseous, liquid, or solid, of a gaseous emission stream arefractions.

Wet scrubbing uses injected liquid to contact scrubbing targets in agaseous emission stream. The injected liquid could be water, in the caseof aerosol scrubbing, or an aqueous scrubbing slurry such as limestoneand water in the case of SOx scrubbing. For NOx and SOx scrubbing, achemical reaction occurs between a reagent in the injected liquid andthe target fraction, producing harmless products. Carbon dioxidescrubbing by an injected aqueous amine solution is one means for carboncapture known to the art. Dry scrubbing of SOx injects limestone powderinto flue gas. Wet scrubbing of fly ash agglomerates tiny particles bycontact with water to produce a fly ash slurry.

The purpose of scrubbing is to separate a gaseous emission stream into astream of concentrated unwanted fractions and a separate stream ofdesired fractions. For flue gas scrubbing, the unwanted fractionsinclude fly ash and other aerosols, NOx, SOx, and carbon dioxide;desired fractions are nitrogen, water vapor, oxygen, and argon, all ofwhich may be safely discharged to the atmosphere. For natural gasscrubbing, the desired fraction is methane and the unwanted fractionsinclude carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, water, particulates, mercury,and mercaptans.

Advection is transport responding to a pressure gradient or body force.The term radial denotes a direction outward or inward with respect tosome point or line. For example, a centrifugal pump advects fluidradially outward from its axis of rotation.

Differential radial advection of a gaseous emission stream is advectionof heavy fractions radially outward and simultaneous advection of lightfractions radially inward. The reference line for said radial flow isthe axis of rotation of said at least one centrifugal impeller.Different advecting forces act in opposite directions and on differentconstituents. Heavy fractions are advected radially outward by momentumtransport from the centrifugal impeller. Light fractions are advectedradially inward by axial suction and by back pressure, simultaneously.

Therefore differential radial advection is distinguishable fromcentrifugal gas separation as presently known to the art. Two rotationsin combination produce differential radial advection: one rotation is ofat least one centrifugal impeller, the other is vortices in a planenormal to the impeller. The axes of the two rotations are approximatelyorthogonal.

Centrifugal gas separation is radial stratification by density about anaxis of rotation due to differential centrifugal force. A common radialacceleration affects all fractions. This common acceleration whenmultiplied by mass becomes differential centrifugal force, which causesheavy fractions to concentrate at the periphery, displacing lightfractions radially inward to the axis of rotation. Although different inmagnitude for light and heavy fractions, centrifugal force is the samein direction for all fractions. There is no centrifugal force advectingheavy fractions and centripetal force advecting light fractions. Thereis only one force, created by one rotation.

Coal Smoke.

Carbonaceous fuel combustion produces a gaseous emission stream calledsmoke. Each constituent of smoke is a fraction. Noxious fractions insmoke from coal-fired power plants include sulfur oxides (SOx,principally SO₂ and SO₃), nitrogen oxides (NOx, principally NO and NO₂),aerosols (fly ash, mercury vapor, dust, trace metals), and carbondioxide (CO₂). There are also benign fractions (nitrogen gas, oxygen,and water vapor) which constitute approximately 85% of smoke by volume.Air used for combustion contains about 79% gaseous nitrogen (N₂), whichis inert, so flue gas is approximately 75% nitrogen. Water vapor (H₂O)is created by combination of the hydrogen in the fuel with atmosphericoxygen during combustion. Much of the plume from flue gas stacks iswater vapor forming a cloud as it contacts cool air.

The benign fractions in smoke have lower density (lower molar mass) thanthe noxious fractions. Therefore nitrogen gas, oxygen gas, and watervapor are referred to collectively as light fractions, and the noxiousfractions (aerosols, NOx, SOx, and carbon dioxide) are referred to asheavy fractions. Carbon capture is the separation of carbon dioxide fromthe light fractions, and scrubbing of flue gas in the present inventionis the separation of the other noxious fractions from carbon dioxide, soas to produce a carbon dioxide stream of acceptable purity fordownstream processing, including sequestration or making dry ice.

Coal is currently the dominant fuel in the power sector, accounting for38% of electricity generated in 2000, with hydro power 17.5%, naturalgas 17.3%, nuclear 16.8%, oil 9%, and non-hydro renewables 1.6%. Coal isprojected to remain the dominant fuel for power generation in 2020(about 36%), and natural gas power generation will become the secondlargest source, surpassing hydro. To combat the urgent problem of globalwarming, known post-combustion carbon capture methods (chemicalsorption, membrane separation, and cryogenic distillation) would have tobe scaled up to deal with the large streams of hot dirty dilute flue gasfrom coal fired and natural gas fired power plants. None has provedeconomically feasible so far.

Carbon Capture.

According to the IPCC Report on Carbon Capture (September 2005): “thepower and industry sectors combined dominate current global CO2emissions, accounting for about 60% of total CO2 emissions. Futureprojections indicate that the share of these sectoral emissions willdecline to around 50% of global CO2 emissions by 2050 (IEA, 2002). TheCO2 emissions in these sectors are generated by boilers and furnacesburning fossil fuels and are typically emitted from large exhaust stacks. . . . The largest amount of CO2 emitted from large stationary sourcesoriginates from fossil fuel combustion for power generation, with anaverage annual emission of 3.9 MtCO2 per source. Substantial amounts ofCO2 arise in the oil and gas processing industries while cementproduction is the largest emitter from the industrial sector . . . . Theranges of the technical capture potential relative to total CO2emissions are 9-12% (or 2.6-4.9 GtCO2) by 2020 and 21-45% (or 4.7-37.5GtCO2) by 2050.”

Clearly there has long been a critical but unmet need for improvedcarbon capture from the gaseous emission streams of power plants. Twoobstacles stand in the way of economical carbon capture: (1) the highvolume percentage of nitrogen (˜75%), known as nitrogen ballast; and (2)the pollution of aerosols, NOx and SOx. Despite the efforts of manyinvestigators having more than ordinary skill in the art of flue gasscrubbing or the art of centrifugal gas separation, no satisfactoryanswer to these two obstacles has been discovered. Any obvious stepsusing the teachings of McCutchen '377, which was published in 1997, orother prior art for the solution of such important problems, would havebeen evident long before now.

Three carbon capture processes are known to the art: cryogenicdistillation, sorption, and membranes. The present invention introducesa fourth.

Cryogenic distillation captures carbon by liquefaction and separates outNOx and SOx by fractional distillation. Liquefaction is frustrated bynitrogen ballast, which compresses without liquefaction. The smallpartial pressure of NOx and SOx in flue gas (very much less than 1% byvolume) and the small partial pressure of CO₂ (10-15% by volume) areboth due to the high nitrogen ballast (75%).

For sorption processes, nitrogen ballast makes carbon dioxide moleculeslike needles in a haystack, so an inordinate amount of wastewater isgenerated in contacting enough targets to achieve satisfactorycollection efficiency. Fly ash, a fine glassy dust, plugs absorbers usedin sorption processes. NOx and SOx combine with water to becomecorrosive acids and heat stable salts, causing loss in absorptioncapacity and coating of reclaimer tube surfaces. Aqueous amine scrubbingof carbon dioxide from natural gas is much easier than the same processapplied to flue gas polluted by fly ash, NOx, and SOx.

Membranes or other dead-end filtration media are impractical for largescale carbon capture from flue gas because of the presence of fly ash,which plugs the pores.

In view of these problems, a need exists for an alternative means forcarbon capture, and for improved scrubbing upstream of known carboncapture processes. Here is the position of the U.S. Department ofEnergy: “The low pressure and dilute concentration dictate a high actualvolume of gas to be treated. Trace impurities in the flue gas tend toreduce the effectiveness of the CO2 adsorbing processes. Compressingcaptured CO2 from atmospheric pressure to pipeline pressure (1,200-2,000pounds per square inch (psi)) represents a large parasitic load.”

Both natural gas and coal-fired power plants emit voluminous streams ofhot smoke, comprising 10-15% by volume carbon dioxide (CO₂) atapproximately atmospheric pressure. These arelow-concentration/low-partial-pressure sources, which are the mostdifficult for carbon capture.

Nitrogen Extraction.

No means for extracting nitrogen from flue gas upstream of carboncapture are known. Nitrogen (N₂) is a harmless gas which constitutes 75%of the volume of flue gas from coal-fired power plants. This is referredto as nitrogen ballast. Nitrogen might be safely discharged to theEarth's atmosphere, which is already 78% nitrogen. Other benign lightfractions in flue gas are oxygen (O₂) (4%), water vapor (5%), and argon(1%). Altogether, approximately 85% of flue gas does not require anytreatment at all, other than extraction. Extracting benign gasesupstream of carbon capture would increase concentration of carbondioxide from only 10-15% in the gaseous emission stream to over 90% inthe feed gas to downstream carbon capture processes. Concentration ofcarbon dioxide might make carbon capture economically feasible.

Extraction of nitrogen so as to concentrate carbon dioxide istheoretically possible because nitrogen and the other light fractionshave small molar mass compared to carbon dioxide and the other heavyfractions. Centrifugal gas separation in an open system couldtheoretically solve the problem of nitrogen extraction.

Centrifugal Gas Separation.

The molar mass of nitrogen gas (N₂) is only 28 g/mol (grams per mole ofgas); carbon dioxide (CO₂) is 36% denser at 44 g/mol. Centrifugal gasseparators which might exploit this 36% density difference are of twoclasses: mechanically driven and pressure driven.

Mechanically driven gas separators can exploit gas density differencesas low as 1.5%, far beyond the performance required for flue gasseparation. The ultracentrifuge is a very delicately balanced cylinderrotating at extreme speed and generating very high g force whichradially stratifies gases by density within the cylinder. Such rotatingcylinder centrifugal gas separators are dangerous because of theirextremely high rotation speed.

Pressure driven devices include inertial collectors (also known ascyclones), and vortex tubes. Cyclones and vortex tubes are axialcounterflow devices, wherein flow goes in opposite directions and thedevice is static.

Inertial collectors are used extensively to process gaseous emissionstreams to remove most aerosols. Cyclones have no moving parts.Tangential feed injected through the wall of a tank swirls downwardalong the wall in a first vortex, then swirls upward in a second vortexinside the first vortex. This is axial counterflow. Solids arecentrifugated out against the wall of the tank and are collected at thebottom, and a cleaned gas exits the top with the second vortex.Cyclones, even cascaded, are ineffective even for the relatively easyjob of separating out 2.5 micron fly ash. Nitrogen extraction byinertial collectors has not been reported and would appear to beimpossible.

Another pressure driven centrifugal gas separation device without movingparts is the vortex tube. The net effect of a vortex tube is to separatea high pressure stream into two low pressure streams, one hotter and theother colder than the original gas stream. Pressurized feed gas istangentially injected into one end of a static tube having both endsopen. The feed gas spirals in a first vortex to the opposite end, wherethere is a conical central flow impedance. Hot gas exits the tube aroundthe flow impedance. A recirculation flow rebounds from the flowimpedance in a second vortex inside the first vortex and exits the feedend cooler than the feed gas. Residence time in the vortex tube is onthe order of milliseconds. There are a variety of opinions about how thevortex tube effects separation of the feed gas by temperature.

Application of the vortex tube has also been made to the separation ofliquefied air into nitrogen and oxygen, to removing condensible vaporsfrom natural gas, and to improving sorbent mixing for carbon dioxidescrubbing. The presence of fly ash in flue gas, the high energyrequirement for pressurizing the feed, and the poor separationefficiency for gas/gas separation (gas fractionation) would appear tomake the vortex tube unsuitable for extracting nitrogen from flue gas.

Fly Ash and Other Aerosols.

Aerosols comprise fly ash, soot, condensible vapors, mist, and dust.These fractions are airborne because they are very small. Scrubbing ofaerosols agglomerates these fractions so they can be separated moreeasily downstream. However, approximately 6% by mass of particleemissions from pulverized bituminous and sub-bituminous coal combustionis in the form of aerosols too small to separate by known processes ordevices.

Fly ash is fine inorganic (principally silicon dioxide) particulatematter formed during coal combustion. The most troublesome fly ash is inthe form of minute glassy dust less than 2.5 millionths of a meter(micron) in diameter (PM-2.5). Collected fly ash is valuable as aconcrete additive and as a material for making durable and imperviousbricks which require no firing. Fly ash can therefore be seen as both aproblem and an unexploited resource.

Soot, another particulate emission, is uncombusted fuel, which isusually not a problem in power plants where combustion is complete.Combustion is frequently not complete, and in gaseous emission streamsfrom ships and vehicles, soot is a serious problem.

Other aerosols include vapors, mist, dust, and trace metals. Mercury andVOCs (volatile organic compounds) are condensible vapors which areregulated emissions because of their known harmful effect. Mist is tinyliquid droplets, including sulfuric acid droplets, water droplets, anddroplets from condensed condensible vapors. Dust is airborne fragmentsof inorganic material. Trace metals in flue gas include uranium,arsenic, lead, cobalt, chromium, and thorium.

Dry electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are the principal means used forcollecting aerosols from coal-fired flue gas. Other industries usingESPs for emission control are cement (dust), pulp and paper (salt cakeand lime dust), petrochemicals (sulfuric acid mist), and steel (dust andfumes). A cathode in the flow path of a gaseous emission stream impartsa negative charge to the entrained particles. A positively chargedcollector plate (anode) downstream in the flow path attracts thenegative charges. Charged aerosols adhere to the collector plate andagglomerate in a coating. The coating is dislodged by rapping into ahopper.

ESPs, when working properly and with the right fuel, may have an overallcollection efficiency as high as 99.2%. Where ESPs fail is in collectingfly ash under 2.5 microns and other fine particulates. The size limitfor effective aerosol collection in ESPs is approximately 10 microns.

Even lower collection efficiency for fine particulates is found in theperformance of inertial collectors, such as cyclones. Estimated overallcontrol efficiency for a cascade of multiple cyclones is 94%, but fineparticulates mostly escape collection. Cyclones are often used as aprecollector upstream of an ESP, fabric filter, or wet scrubber so thatthese devices can be specified for lower particle loadings to reducecapital and/or operating costs.

Wet Scrubbers for NOx, SOx, and Aerosols.

The 94% overall collection efficiency for particulates in prior art wetscrubbers is inferior to the maximum collection efficiency of ESPs.Mechanically aided wet scrubbers known to the art spray liquid ontocentrifugal fan blades as waste gas flows through the fan. The advantageof mechanical assistance is less water usage and a smaller footprint.Collection takes place in the spray and in the film that forms on thefan blades.

Wet particulate scrubbers have the disadvantage of trading an airpollution problem for a water pollution problem.

Venturi scrubbers, the most turbulent of wet scrubbers, have the highestcollection efficiency. Venturis are pressure driven devices which jet acombined stream of waste gas and liquid through a nozzle into a tank.However, venturis have the disadvantage that turbulence quicklydissipates into pressure. The time during which turbulent mixing occursis short.

For NOx and SOx, the injected scrubbing liquid is an aqueous solutioncomprising sorbents (lime or limestone for SOx, ammonia for NOx). Thesorbents react with the target gases to produce harmless products.

Removal efficiency for prior art wet SOx scrubbing ranges from 50-98%.As with all prior art wet scrubbers, the price paid for high removalefficiency is a large volume of dilute wastewater requiring storage andtreatment and a consequent waste of space and resources. Dry SOxscrubbers have a lower removal efficiency, <80%, but do not createwastewater.

A known carbon capture process used in processing natural gas is wetscrubbing with aqueous amine solution. NOx, SOx, and aerosols in fluegas complicate the application of this known technology to high volumehot and dirty exhaust gas streams.

Low concentration of SOx and NOx (less than 1% by volume) in a highvolume of nitrogen and other benign fractions means that a large amountof liquid must be injected in order to contact enough of the scarcescrubbing targets to achieve satisfactory removal efficiency. Lowconcentration also means that condensation is more difficult, due to lowpartial pressure.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

This is a new method of carbon capture, which separates a clean gaseousstream of concentrated carbon dioxide from a gaseous emission streamdynamically in radial counterflow. Cascading devices achievesatisfactory collection efficiency to permit atmospheric discharge ofaxially extracted nitrogen and water vapor.

An apparatus for differential radial advection of heavy and lightfractions in flue gas from coal-fired power plants, or other gaseousemission streams, comprises means for axial feed between coaxialcounter-rotating centrifugal impellers. High molar mass fractions (heavyfractions) such as carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx, mercury, and fly ash, areadvected radially outward by the impellers into a tank. Low molar massfractions (light fractions), such as nitrogen and water vapor, areadvected radially inward by back pressure and axial suction, and areaxially extracted to discharge or further treatment. Radial vorticesbetween the impellers provide conduits for light fractions to flowradially inward, through the axial feed.

Highly turbulent mechanically assisted mixing and scrubbing during along residence time in the high shear between the impellers, incombination with said upstream axial extraction of nitrogen ballast bydifferential radial advection, separates a clean stream of gaseouscarbon dioxide from flue gas.

Fly ash and precipitates are agglomerated into clumps of sludge by shearthickening in the turbulence, and are recovered from the tank. Gasesproduced by sorbent reactions are continuously removed from the shearingreaction zones at the periphery of turbulent vortices. Continuousextraction of inert gases away from scrubbing targets and turbulentmechanically assisted mixing minimize the volume of injected liquidrequired for satisfactory collection efficiency of NOx, SOx, andaerosols.

The process may be thought of as organized turbulence. Tiny centrifugalseparation effects in turbulent eddies are integrated by a forcingregime to produce radially divergent streams of heavy and lightfractions, the heavy stream having a high concentration of carbondioxide, and the light stream having a high concentration of nitrogen.

SUMMARY OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows a schematic elevational view of one half of the preferredembodiment, an apparatus comprising counter-rotating centrifugalimpellers for carbon capture and scrubbing.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of half the work space of the preferredembodiment shown in FIG. 1, with the top impeller and baffle invisible,showing an array of co-rotating radial vortices between the impellers, aturbulent ring, and mixing zones between the radial vortices and theimpellers.

FIG. 3 a shows a detail of a side view of a portion of the work space,showing flow paths for the heavy and light fractions, and the shearlayer between the impellers.

FIG. 3 b shows a cross sectional view from the axis of rotation into theturbulent ring.

FIG. 4 shows a detail of a side view of the impeller periphery and tankin the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 a shows a side cross-sectional view of a radial vortex in thevicinity of the axial exhaust port with vectors showing radialcounterflow.

FIG. 6 shows an alternative embodiment, comprising a single impellerwithin a casing.

FIG. 7 a shows a detail of the preferred drive means for causingcounter-rotation of centrifugal impellers in the preferred embodimentshown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 b shows a top view of the preferred embodiment and its preferreddrive means.

DRAWING REFERENCE NUMERALS

-   1—axial feed conduit-   1 a—feed gas source-   2—axial feed port-   3—work space-   4—bottom impeller-   5—top impeller-   6—vanes-   7—drive means-   8—means for connection-   9—axial exhaust port-   10—exhaust conduit-   11—axial pump, ejector/eductor-   12—periphery of the impeller assembly-   13—tank-   14—baffle-   15—radial feed conduit-   16—injection port for scrubbing liquid-   17—pinch section of impeller assembly-   18—flare section of impeller assembly-   19—impeller assembly-   20—liquid source for scrubbing liquid-   21—radial vortices, sink conduits-   22—mixing zones between the radial vortices-   23—laminar ring of the work space-   24—turbulent ring of the work space-   25—expansion ring of the work space-   26—cooling means-   27—gas vent-   28—purge pump-   29—movable seal-   30—boundary layer-   31—shear layer-   32—recirculation flow pressure, back pressure-   33—source flow-   34—sink flow-   35—casing-   36—drive motor-   37—drive spindle-   38—drive wheel-   39—bearing seal-   40—movable seal-   41—centrifugal impeller-   42—impeller drive spindle

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a schematic cross-sectional elevational view of thepreferred embodiment, an apparatus for concentrating and scrubbing agaseous emission stream such as flue gas from coal combustion. The axisof symmetry and the axis of rotation is the axis a-a. Discussion of FIG.1 will focus on application of the preferred embodiment to coal-firedflue gas treatment, although it could be used for other gaseous emissionstreams.

Feed gas (coal-fired power plant flue gas) flows continuously from asource 1 a through an axial feed conduit 1 and into a work space 3through an axial feed port 2 in an impeller assembly 19. Other gaseousemission streams include those from cement plants, sulfuric acidfactories, medical waste incineration, industrial boilers, paperfactories, steel mills, ships, and other industrial facilities. The termfeed gas will refer to these as well. The term fluid refers to gases,liquids, and mixtures thereof. The term fluid mixture refers to mixturesof fluids, including mixtures comprising solids. Flue gas is a fluidmixture comprising heavy fractions (carbon dioxide, aerosols, sulfuroxides, mercury vapor, and nitrogen oxides) and light fractions(nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor).

The impeller assembly 19 comprises counter-rotatable centrifugalimpellers 4,5 having a common axis of rotation a-a and a periphery 12.The impellers are preferably constructed of rigid material, such assteel. Rotation of the impellers advects fluid radially outward in awork space 3 between the impellers. Suitable means (not shown)supporting the impellers maintain the impellers in an opposed andspaced-apart position so as to maintain the work space 3 between them.The preferred drive means shown in FIG. 7 maintains the impellerseparation by the drive wheel 38. As shown, the separation between thesupported impellers varies radially outward from their axis of rotationa-a, thereby defining a pinch section 17 and a flare section 18.Preferably, the impeller assembly is grounded by suitable means (notshown) to prevent shock.

The centrifugal impellers 4,5 of the impeller assembly 19 are connectedby suitable means for connection 8 to drive means 7. The preferredembodiment of the drive means and connection means for causingapproximately exact counter-rotation is shown in FIGS. 7 a and 7 b.Shown in FIG. 1 are alternative drive means 7 connected to eachimpeller. The impellers rotate approximately at the same angularvelocity but in opposite directions. Preferably, for flue gas treatmenton a large scale, rotation speed for each of the impellers is less than1000 revolutions per minute (rpm). Many suitable drive means 7 are knownto the art, including separate motors for each impeller, and varioussuitable means for connection 8 so as to cause counter-rotation of theimpellers are known, including belt drives and gears. For example,airplanes and helicopters having counter-rotating propellers connectedby planetary gears are known.

The impellers comprise vanes 6. Various vane designs are known to theart and could be used, including curved vanes as shown in FIG. 2 orangled blades. Viewed in superposition, the vanes of the top and bottomimpellers cross. Therefore, during counter-rotation, there will benumerous points in the work space where shear is high between the vanes,and there will be a continuous radially outward movement of thosepoints. Vanes in the flare section 18 at the periphery 12 serve tocompress fluid flowing through the periphery into an annular tank 13 andto create a recirculation flow pressure 32. Vanes near the axial feedport 2 serve to advect feed gas radially outward into the work space 3.Vanes near the axial exhaust port serve to protect flow through theaxial exhaust port from pollution of heavy fractions by advecting heavyfractions radially outward away from the axial exhaust port 9. See FIG.5.

Feed gas driven by the impellers 4, 5 of the impeller assembly 19 flowsfrom the axial feed inlet 2 through the work space 3 to the periphery 12and into a tank 13 in a radially outward flow path betweencounter-rotating centrifugal impellers. Said flow radially outward fromthe axis a-a will be referred to as source flow. Source flow comprisesheavy fractions, injected liquid, and unseparated light fractions.Source flow is turbulent due to high shear.

Source flow between the impellers is impeded at a pinch section 17 wherethe impeller surfaces converge and become closely separated. The pinchsection is effectively a convergent nozzle, therefore source flowvelocity decreases. Drag force opposes the source flow and increasesresidence time of the feed gas in the high shear environment between theimpellers. Mixing of the feed gas with injected scrubbing liquid isenhanced by high turbulence which is mechanically forced. Stalling ofsource flow at the pinch section differentially affects the lightfractions and aids in axial extraction of nitrogen and water vapor toconcentrate the scrubbing targets, as will be explained below.

After passing the pinch section 17, what remains of the feed gas afteraxial extraction of the light fractions flows into a flare section 18,where the separation between the impellers increases. Scrubbing targets,including particulates, NOx, and SOx, have been concentrated andscrubbing liquid has been mixed into the flue gas. The flare section iseffectively a divergent nozzle. Vanes 6 on the impellers at the flaresection force fluid radially outward into a tank 13. The rotation of theimpellers pressurizes the tank.

A tank 13 receives flow through the periphery 12. Preferably, the tankis an annulus disposed about the impeller periphery and connected to theimpellers 4,5 through movable seals 29. The seals maintain tank pressureand permit the impellers to slide against the static tank wall. Tankpressure aids in condensing SOx and NOx within the tank, as well ascondensing mercury vapor and water vapor. Impellers at the flare section18 of the impeller assembly pressurize the tank. A recirculation flowpressure 32 due to tank pressure is shown by the right-pointing arrow.

The tank comprises a gas vent 27 communicating with the tank interiorand providing means for releasing carbon dioxide out of the pressurizedtank for further processing. The gas vent could be of many designs knownto the art. The gas vent 27 could also be a Joule-Thomson expansionvalve. Carbon dioxide in the tank remains gaseous and monitoring means(not shown) communicating with the gas vent regulate the purity of thestream allowed to escape from the tank through the gas vent 27. Thestream through the gas vent has a high concentration of carbon dioxideand has been scrubbed of NOx, SOx and aerosols. If necessary, a seconddevice of the same design receives the output of the gas vent as feed.Cascading devices remove nitrogen, NOx, SOx, and aerosols from theconcentrated carbon dioxide stream coming through the gas vent 27.

The tank also comprises a purge pump 28 communicating with the tankinterior and providing means for pumping solids and liquids out of thetank. The purge pump could be of many designs known to the art,including a progressive cavity pump or simply a valve. Flow through thepurge pump 28 is a concentrated stream of heavy fractions, includinginjected liquid, condensates, and particulates from the flue gas.Condensates include condensed NOx and SOx and mercury. Particulatesinclude agglomerated fly ash and other aerosols, as well as precipitatesproduced by wet scrubbing. FIG. 4 shows a detail of the tank.

The work of the impellers 6 creates a recirculating flow pressure 32, orback pressure, which opposes the source flow and also increasesresidence time in the pinch section 17. As can be seen, the flaresection 18 is effectively a convergent nozzle for back pressure 32 fromthe tank 13 and at the same time is a divergent nozzle for source flow.Back pressure 32 is focussed into the shear layer and serves to drivelight fractions radially inward. Heavy fractions flow along the surfacesof the impellers radially outward into the tank, around the backpressure. Pressure in the tank 13 condenses water vapor, unreacted NOx,unreacted SOx, and mercury, which flow through a purge pump 28 tocollection along with agglomerated aerosols and precipitates fromscrubbing.

The combination of recirculating flow pressure and high shear betweenthe impellers, which have high tangential velocity at the periphery,causes very high turbulence in the flare section 18. Reynolds numbers onthe order of 10⁷ have been reported for analogous von Karman swirlingflow in a closely shrouded closed system setup comprising exactlycounter-rotating impellers having a high aspect ratio. Thereforeexcellent mixing occurs in the flare section 18. Mixing of injectedliquid with the gas in the flare section, which has been concentrated byaxial extraction of nitrogen, wets particulates and contacts NOx and SOxand CO₂. Turbulent vortices allow for radially inward extraction ofgases produced by sorbent reactions, thus favoring the forward reactionand improving scrubbing efficiency. Mechanically forced turbulence,unlike pressure forced turbulence as with a venturi, will not dissipateand can be continued as long as necessary. Residence time is superior towhat is possible with centrifugal mechanically assisted wet scrubbersknown to the art, which are rapid flow-through devices.

Residence time in the flare section 18 and the tank 13 can be regulatedby adjusting impeller speed and tank evacuation to assure satisfactoryscrubbing for a given feed flow. A second device, using the output ofthe first device as feed gas, would permit tank evacuation even beforescrubbing were completed, in the event of a high feed flow.

Condensation of NOx and SOx and mercury occurs in the pressurized tank13, leaving a gaseous stream of concentrated carbon dioxide comingthrough the gas vent 27. Nitrogen ballast has been axially extractedupstream of compression. The boiling point of sulfur dioxide is high at−10° C. (263 K) and sulfur trioxide is higher at 45° C. Nitrogendioxide's boiling point is also high, at 21.1° C. Scrubbing of NOx, SOx,and mercury from the concentrated carbon dioxide stream by condensationunder the tank pressure and by the turbulent sorbent mixing induced bythe impeller assembly produces a liquid in the tank having a highconcentration of these noxious fractions. The liquid in the tank isevacuated from the tank through the purge pump 28.

An axial exhaust port 9 at the center of the top impeller 5 communicateswith an axial exhaust conduit 10. An axial pump 11 communicates with theaxial exhaust conduit and provides means for extracting fluid from thework space 3 while the impellers counter-rotate about the axis a-a. Saidflow radially inward toward the axis a-a will be referred to as sinkflow.

Sink flow is primarily of light fractions, including nitrogen, watervapor, and oxygen. These gaseous fractions constitute approximately 85%of the volume of flue gas and other industrial gaseous emission streams.Sink flow is driven by the suction of the axial pump 11 and byrecirculating flow pressure 32 caused by the impellers. The reason thatlight fractions are differentially advected radially inward is thatturbulent eddy vortices concentrate light fractions at tiny vortex axesand away from the impellers, and radial vortices 21 provide coherent lowpressure gradients linking these capillaries into an arterial sink flow.

A shear layer 31 exists in the work space 3 due to counter-rotation ofthe impellers. The shear layer is in a plane approximately equidistantfrom the impellers and approximately normal to their axis of rotation.Against each impeller is an adherent boundary layer 30 of fluid whichrotates along with the impeller. These boundary layers shear each other.Radial vortices 21 created by shear of the boundary layers in the shearlayer are an array of coherent tubular vortices having axes radial tothe impeller axis of rotation a-a, like spokes in a wheel with the axisa-a as the axle. See FIGS. 2, 3 a, 3 b, and 5 for more on radialvortices.

The radial vortices 21 provide conduits for flow radially inward to theaxial exhaust port 9, or sink flow. Said sink flow conduits existalthough feed gas flows around them because there is sufficient massflow through the radial vortices to sustain coherence. Sink flow isforced by the suction of an axial pump 11 and by the back pressure 32caused by the impeller assembly pushing fluid into a shrouding tank 13.

Von Karman swirling flow is the name given to the flow in a cylindricalvessel between counter-rotating disks. Recirculation flow from theshrouding cylinder wall, together with the shear between the impellers,can cause extremely high turbulence (Re ˜10⁷). However, investigationsof von Karman swirling flow have only considered closed vessels withclose shrouding walls and high aspect ratios. No flow-through device forperforming useful tasks has been disclosed.

A baffle 14 protects the axial exhaust port 9 from intrusion of feedgas. The baffle is connected to the bottom impeller 4 by vanes 6. Thebaffle rotates along with the bottom impeller. The vanes and baffledefine spiral feed conduits 15 for introducing fluid into the work space3. Injection ports 16 in the spiral feed conduits communicate with aliquid source 20 and provide means for introducing a liquid, such aswater or sorbent slurry or solution, into the work space 3 along withthe feed gas. Preferably, the injection port comprises a Lobestar®vortex mixing nozzle. Pressurized liquid injection through the injectionports or suction of liquid from the liquid source by feed gas flow couldboth be used, but pressurized injection is preferable. Feed gas mixeswith injected liquid in the spiral feed conduits. The mixture swirlsaround the axes of the radial vortices in radially outward source flowsimultaneous with said radially inward sink flow of light fractionsthrough the radial vortices 21. Feed gas which may somehow enter thespace between the baffle and the top impeller is centrifugated out awayfrom the axes of the radial vortices and the eddies and collects at theimpeller surfaces where it is advected radially outward away from theaxial exhaust port 9.

The foregoing simultaneous radial source-sink flow will be referred toas radial counterflow. Radial counterflow is different from axialcounterflow (as practiced in a cyclone or a vortex tube) even though thecounterflow is about the same axis. The difference is that the axis ofthe counterflow vortices is radial to the axis of rotation of thedriving device. Furthermore, known axial counterflow devices are drivenby feed pressure, whereas radial counterflow as disclosed in the presentinvention is mechanically driven.

An axial pump 11 communicates with the work space 3 through the axialexhaust conduit 10 and the axial exhaust port 9. The suction of theaxial pump 11 causes fluid to flow from the work space 3 through theaxial exhaust port 9 and through the axial exhaust conduit 10 while theimpellers 4, 5 are rotating.

Preferably, the axial pump is a steam ejector/eductor, which could be ofvarious designs known to the art, sized to assure constant flow throughthe axial exhaust port 9 as feed is introduced through the axial feedport 2. Blowdown steam is abundant at the site of coal-fired powerplants and could be used for the ejector 11, which does not need to beextremely high tech in order to provide the necessary sink flow.Alternative axial pumps are nitrogen ejectors or blowers and otherdesigns for gas flow known to the art.

Recirculation flow pressure 32 aids the axial pump 11 in extractinglight fractions from the work space. Flow through the axial exhaustconduit 10 is a stream having a high concentration of light fractions,including nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor, at least higher than theconcentration of the light fractions in the feed. The flow through theaxial exhaust conduit could be feed for another device according to thepresent invention in order to scrub out remaining pollutants, or mighteven be immediately emitted to the atmosphere if low enoughconcentration of pollutants has been achieved in the first stage.

A cascade of scrubbers according to the design shown in FIG. 1 and usingthe output of the axial exhaust conduit as feed for subsequent stagesscrubs enough of the heavy fractions remaining in the light fractionstream to permit discharge of the light fraction stream to theatmosphere.

Nitric oxide (NO, molar mass 30 g/mol) which may be present in the lightfraction stream is decomposed in a catalytic converter (not shown) priorto discharge. The operation of the catalytic converter is enhanced bythe upstream scrubbing of particulates and other noxious fractions.

OPERATION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Turbulence is conventionally regarded as a useless degradation ofmechanical energy, and therefore unworthy of interest except as anuisance. In the present invention, turbulence is harnessed for carboncapture and scrubbing of flue gas. The forcing regime of an axial pumpand a centrifugal impeller assembly, which force flow in oppositedirections, integrates the tiny centrifugation effects of turbulentvortices to produce differential radial advection of light and heavyfractions in the gaseous emission stream. Simultaneous source-sink flowis possible through the work space because radial vortices provide sinkflow conduits through the source flow.

Eddies in the shear layer and high turbulence between thecounter-rotating impellers provide low pressure gradients where lowdensity fractions, such as nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor,concentrate. Said low pressure gradients communicate circuitously withthe low pressure in the axial exhaust conduit 10 caused by the suctionof the axial pump 11. Radial vortices 21 provide sink flow conduits forhigh mass flow of light fractions radially inward. Sink flow is forcedby the suction of the axial pump 11 and by a recirculation flowpressure, or back pressure 32 caused by centrifugal flow increasing thetank pressure.

Because it is the light fractions which are in high concentration at theturbulent eddy vortices squeezed by the back pressure and sucked by theaxial pump, and it is the heavy fractions which are in highconcentration away from the eddy vortex axes and near the centrifugalimpellers, there is differential radial advection of heavy and lightfractions. Radially outward flow, or source flow, between the impellershas a high concentration of carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx, and aerosols.Radially inward flow, or sink flow, has a high concentration ofnitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor. Different fractions are advected indifferent directions, and are thus separated by density.

An array of co-rotating radial vortices 21 points to the impeller axisa-a like spokes in a wheel (cf. von Karman swirling flow). The radialvortices 21 are sink flow conduits communicating circuitously with thelow pressure gradients at the eddy vortex axes, which serve ascapillaries feeding sink flow. Each radial vortex comprises coaxialsource and sink flows. The impellers drive a source flow swirling aroundthe radial vortex axis and radially outward from the impeller axis.Recirculation flow pressure 32 from the impellers and the suction of theaxial pump 11 drives a sink flow swirling inside said source flow andradially inward toward the impeller axis. See FIG. 5.

At each eddy periphery is a concentration of heavy fractions, andadjacent eddies grind heavy fractions together at their peripheries.Injected water, a heavy fraction, contacts particulates and NOx and SOx,also heavy fractions, as they grind together at the eddy peripheries.Fly ash contacted by injected water becomes fly ash slurry. Fly ashslurry at vortex peripheries shear thickens into clumps of agglomeratedparticles. The clumps tumble in the turbulence and adsorb other clumpsand aerosols. Agglomerated aerosols and precipitates in the tank are inlarge clumps of sludge and therefore are easy to separate from thewastewater.

Nitrogen and other gases which envelop scrubbing targets are strippedaway into the eddy vortex axes, thereby improving wetting ofparticulates, NOx and SOx. Also, gases produced by scrubbing reactionsare removed from the reaction zone through the radial vortices, favoringthe forward scrubbing reaction by removing reaction products. Residencetime is long, turbulence is high, therefore collection efficiency foreven fine particulates is high.

It is important to recognize the difference between radial counterflowand axial counterflow. Axial counterflow, as practiced by the vortextube and the cyclone (both pressure driven static devices) is coaxialsource and sink flows centered on the centerline of a tube or a conicaltank. Radial counterflow (which is mechanically driven bycounter-rotating centrifugal impellers and an axial pump) is coaxialsource and sink flows in a plane approximately normal to a centrifugalimpeller axis of rotation a-a. FIG. 5 shows the orthogonal axescharacteristic of radial counterflow.

The axial pump 11 draws light fractions (such as nitrogen, oxygen, andwater vapor) radially inward toward the impeller axis through the radialvortices and stretches the radial vortex axes, Flow swirling around theradial vortices and radially outward between the impellers alsostretches the vortex axes. Stretching the vortex axes increasesvorticity and sustains coherence of the radial vortices.

The axial pump 11 is not an essential feature, but is preferred. Theaddition of an axial pump 11 is preferred because the volume of sinkflow is large and the mass flow through conduits downstream to eventualdischarge needs to be aided to avoid stagnation of sink flow in the workspace. Approximately 85% of the feed (by volume) becomes sink flow, andextracting such a large volume from the work space is easier with anaxial pump to drive sink flow through the radial vortices.

In addition to coal-fired flue gas, other feed gas from the feed gassource 1 a could be gaseous emissions from fossil fuel power plants suchas natural gas generators, oil-fired boilers, or internal combustionengines, as well as from cement plants, pulp and paper plants,petrochemical plants, steel plants, municipal waste facilities, medicalwaste facilities, and other sources of noxious gas mixtures. Alsosuitable for feed is polluted air from mines and buildings, natural gas,or vacuum cleaner intake. These applications are covered by the claims.

Discussion focuses on use of the preferred embodiment as a pre-treatmentdevice for cleaning and concentrating a carbon dioxide stream out of afeed stream of flue gas from coal-fired power plants. The carbon dioxidestream is to be feed for carbon capture processes. This discussion is byway of illustration and is not intended to limit application of thepreferred embodiment to other gaseous feed streams.

Coal-fired power plant flue gas is a major culprit in global warming andair pollution. This smoke is a high temperature gaseous emission streamcomprising benign fractions including nitrogen, water vapor and oxygen,which constitute approximately 85% by volume. The benign fractions havelow density relative to the other fractions in flue gas and thereforeare called light fractions. Nitrogen gas (N₂) has a molar mass of 28g/mol; water vapor (H₂O) is 18 g/mol; and oxygen (O₂) is 32 g/mol.

Heavy fractions in the smoke include carbon dioxide (CO₂), which has amolar mass of 44 g/mol, nitrogen oxides (NOx, principally NO₂ which hasa molar mass of 46 g/mol), sulfur oxides (SOx, principally SO₂ which is64 g/mol, and SO₃ which is 80 g/mol), mercury vapor (200 g/mol), mist,fly ash, soot, and dust. The heavy fractions are significantly moredense than the light fractions, hence the name heavy fractions.

To explain further the application of molar mass to density, a mole isAvogadro's Number (6.022×10²³×) of gas molecules. Applied to a gasmixture, like flue gas, this many molecules of the mixture occupy acertain volume according to their temperature and pressure, and whateverthat volume is, each constituent in the gas mixture contributes acertain mass, which is its molar mass. Molar mass indicates relativedensity of the constituent gases in an emission stream. Nitrogen is lessdense at 28 g/mol (i.e. 28 grams per whatever volume the mole occupies)than carbon dioxide at 44 g/mol. That is a density difference of 36%.

While the centrifugal impellers 4,5 of the impeller assembly 19counter-rotate about their axis a-a, fluid flow is simultaneous andcontinuous through the axial feed port 2, the axial exhaust port 9, andthe periphery 12. In other words, feed gas through the feed port 2 iscontinuously divided within the impeller assembly 19 into two continuousstreams: (1) a radially inward (toward the axis a-a) sink flow of lightfractions (in flue gas: nitrogen gas, water vapor, and oxygen) throughthe exhaust conduit 10, and (2) a radially outward source flow of heavyfractions (in flue gas: carbon dioxide, liquids, mercury, fly ash, NOxand SOx) through the periphery 12. In the tank 13 which receives theflow through the periphery 12, said heavy fraction stream diverges intoa concentrated carbon dioxide stream going through the gas vent 27 and astream of concentrated liquids, solids, NOx, and SOx going through thepurge pump 28.

Pollution of sink flow by feed flow is prevented by the baffle 14 andalso by the counter-rotation of the centrifugal impellers, which createradial vortices that act as protective sink flow conduits and createradial counterflow of source and sink flow. See FIG. 2. Each eddy vortexin the mixing zone 22 of the turbulence between the impellers radiallystratifies light and heavy fractions and keeps them separate.

By the flare section 18 of the impeller assembly, the source flow offeed gas through the axial feed port 2 has become a turbulent andenriched source flow of concentrated heavy fractions, including carbondioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, fly ash, aerosols, andinjected liquid. Axial extraction of nitrogen, water vapor, and oxygen,has concentrated the targets for scrubbing, and the turbulence in theflare section caused by the shear between the impellers and the backpressure from the shrouding tank causes excellent mixing and shearthickening of fly ash slurry produced by wet scrubbing.

Cooling of carbon dioxide captured in the tank by differential radialadvection and scrubbed by said turbulence occurs through axialextraction of light fractions together with their heat through the axialexhaust conduit 10, by liquid injection, by expansion, and by heattransfer with the impellers through the heat transfer means 26, 26 a.Expansion of the pressurized carbon dioxide in the tank through the gasvent 27 cools it further. Suitable means known to the art can use theconcentrated, cooled and cleaned carbon dioxide stream issuing throughthe gas vent change the stream into a form suitable for sequestration orother treatment.

Shear between the impellers should keep the flow path into the tank forheavy fractions clear. Periodic injections of abrasive particles, suchas bottom ash, through the axial feed conduit 1 while the impellers arein counter-rotation could clean the impeller surfaces.

The liquid injected depends on the wet scrubbing to be performed. ForSOx, a slurry of sorbents known to the art (lime or limestone forexample) would be the liquid, for NOx the sorbent known to the art isammonia, and for fly ash plain water.

High shear between the counter-rotating impellers 4, 5 creates highturbulence in the flow path of feed gas through the work space 3.Turbulence results in a drag force which reduces the velocity ofradially outward flow, thus increasing time available for mixing liquidwith aerosols and the NOx and SOx gases. Back pressure 32 from theshrouding tank 13 also increases residence time for turbulent scrubbing.Turbulence causes aerosols to collide and cohere and improves wetting ofparticles enveloped by adhering gas molecules.

Extraction of gases, such as carbon dioxide produced by wet scrubbingsorbent reactions, into the eddy vortices favors the forward scrubbingreaction. Unreacted SOx and NOx is too dense to join the sink flow ofnitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, and carbon dioxide in the flare sectionand tumbles in the turbulence of the flare section 18 until it isreacted. Long residence time of SOx in this recirculation through highturbulence results in high collection efficiency. Pressure in the tank13 caused by the impeller assembly 19 improves collection efficiency bycondensing unreacted SOx and NOx.

Latent heat in water vapor and heat in the extracted nitrogen isavailable through the axial exhaust conduit 10 to be recycled into powerproduction, such as by preheating feedwater, instead of going out thesmokestack to heat the atmosphere, which could improve efficiency ofpower generation by as much as 10%.

Cascading numerous devices of the present invention would further cool,concentrate, and clean the carbon dioxide captured from the flue gas.The output of the first device (through the gas vent 27) is the feed toa second radial counterflow separator, and so on, with the concentrationand purity of carbon dioxide increasing at each stage.

Dry scrubbing, without water injection, could also be practiced in thepresent invention, with fine particulate matter agglomerating bycollisions in the highly turbulent flow and cohering by van der Waalsforce. Kinetic energy in turbulence, especially where eddy vortexperipheries grind together, overcomes electrostatic repulsion and allowsparticles to stick together in inelastic collisions. Dry scrubbing isaided by extraction of gases into the eddy vortices, which removes theshielding envelope of gas surrounding fine particles. However, wetscrubbing is preferred for the gaseous emission stream produced bycoal-fired power plants because the water also captures SO₃ and othergases, and it improves the collection of fly ash sludge by shearthickening.

Preferably, the impellers and the tank are cooled by suitable meansknown to the art 26, 26 a such as air or liquid flow against the outsidesurfaces of the impeller assembly 19, so as to enhance heat exchangewith the hot gas in the work space 3.

The centrifugated sorbent, wet or dry, serves to drag feed gas radiallyoutward through the turbulence in the pinch section 17 between theimpellers and into the flare section 18 of the impeller assembly, wherevery high turbulence exists due to the combination of high tangentialvelocity of the counter-rotating impellers and back pressure 32.

Those of ordinary skill in the art of emissions control will be able toadjust by theory or experimentation the impeller separation, diameter,and rotation speed relative to the feed conduit diameter and pressureand temperature conditions of the inlet and outlets to achieve the mosteffective fluid separation for various fluid fractions and flow rates.It is important to note, however, that the flow through the periphery 12will have been reduced significantly in mass from the flow through thefeed conduit, due to the axial extraction of nitrogen and water vaporthrough the axial exhaust conduit 10.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of half of the work space 3 in the preferredembodiment shown in FIG. 1 during counter-rotation of the impellers,looking toward the bottom impeller 4. Direction of impeller rotation isshown by the arrow. Discussion focuses on use of the preferredembodiment for capture of carbon dioxide from flue gas. The top impeller5 is invisible and so is the baffle 14. These are shown in FIG. 1 butnot here.

Feed gas enters the work space 3 from the axial feed inlet 2 and iscentrifugally impelled radially outward from the impeller axis ofrotation a-a by curved vanes 6. Shown are a plurality of spiral vanes,but a variety of vane designs known to the art of centrifugal pumpscould be used. Injection ports 16 introduce liquid into the feed gas.Direction of rotation of the bottom impeller 4 is shown by an arrow.Rotation of the bottom impeller and its vanes 6 drives injected liquidand feed gas into the work space and radially outward to the periphery12. Injected liquid from the injection ports 16 atomizes and thecentrifugated droplets drag feed gas radially outward.

A shear layer 31 exists between the counter-rotating centrifugalimpellers, and within the shear layer is an array of coherentco-rotating radial vortices 21 pointing to the axis of rotation a-a likespokes in a wheel having the impeller axis a-a as its hub. The radialvortices are shown truncated approximately where the baffle 14 would bebecause the radial vortices extend to the axial exhaust port 9, notshown here because the top impeller is invisible. The radial vorticesare conduits for sink flow of light fractions radially inward throughthe work space 3 toward the impeller axis a-a.

The work space 3 comprises three concentric rings: a laminar ring 23nearest the center of the work space and the axis of rotation of theimpellers, a turbulent ring 24 distal to the laminar ring, and anexpansion ring 25 distal to the turbulent ring and extending to theperiphery 12. Flow is relatively less turbulent in the laminar ring thanin the turbulent ring, but there is turbulence in all rings. Theturbulent ring 23 is at the pinch section 17 and the expansion ring 18is at the flare section of the impeller assembly 19. Turbulence in theexpansion ring may be even greater than in the turbulent ring. It isuseful to picture the turbulence between the impellers as a chaoticsponge of heavy fraction shells and light fraction voids. Centrifugalseparation by radial density stratification within vortices large andsmall creates the shells and voids.

Light fractions including nitrogen and water vapor concentrate along theaxis of each turbulent eddy vortex, forming voids or vacuoles having lowdensity and low pressure. Heavy fractions are centrifugated to theperiphery of each vortex, forming shells, or crusts having high density.High pressure exists in the heavy fractions because they are confined bythe impellers and grinding on each other as adjacent vortices rotate.When the shells grind together, fly ash, NOx, and SOx mix with injectedliquid. Shells can grind together a long time because turbulence ismechanically forced by the impellers. Shear between adjacent vorticesagglomerates and shear thickens fly ash slurry into easily separableclumps of sludge.

Feed gas also stratifies radially by density about the impeller axisa-a, which is orthogonal to the vortex axes in the shear layer.Differential radial advection drives heavy fractions radially outward tothe periphery 12 and light fractions radially inward through the radialvortices 21 to the axial exhaust port 9. Extraction of nitrogen andwater vapor from carbon dioxide is continuous, both in the turbulenteddies and in the bulk. The present invention provides means forconnecting the heretofore useless centrifugal separation performed byturbulent eddies with the centrifugal separation performed bycentrifugal impellers and the axial pump. The tiny effects in turbulenceare integrated by the forcing regime to produce separation of gaseousfluid mixtures by density.

FIG. 3 a shows a detailed schematic cross-section of the laminar ring 23of the work space between the impellers 4, 5 of the preferred embodimentshown in FIG. 1. A shear layer 31 between boundary layers 30 against theimpellers has high vorticity due to counter-rotation of the centrifugalimpellers 4,5 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 b. Feed gas is introducedthrough radial feed conduits 15 as shown by an arrow. Highly turbulentmixing occurs in a mixing zone 22 between counter-rotating centrifugalimpellers 4,5.

Eddy vortices in the mixing zone 22 centrifugate heavy fractions(including carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx, and particulates) away from theirvortex axes, where light fractions (including nitrogen, water vapor, andoxygen) concentrate. Heavy fractions concentrate in the boundary layers30 against the impellers. Rotation of the impellers causes molecules ofheavy fractions to flow radially outward. Light fractions arepreferentially advected radially inward toward the impeller axis, insink flow, by the suction of an axial pump shown in FIG. 1 and by backpressure 32 as explained under FIG. 1. Said differential radialadvection of light and heavy fractions occurs because of radialstratification of fractions by density in the vortices of the shearlayer. See FIG. 5 for a more detailed explanation.

Radial vortices 21 in the shear layer 31 provide coherent conduits forsink flow 34 (shown by arrows) of light fractions radially inward towardthe impeller axis of rotation a-a. Each radial vortex comprises aperipheral swirling source flow 33 of feed gas (first vortex) and acoaxial interior swirling sink flow 34 of light fractions (secondvortex). Both the source flow and the sink flow stretch the vortex axis,increasing vorticity and sustaining coherence. Unlike the counterflow ina vortex tube, this counterflow is not driven by feed pressure but bythe centrifugal impellers and the axial pump operating simultaneously.

Axes of the vortices in the shear layer are generally aligned in theplane of the shear layer 31. Should any axis stick out of the shearlayer, it would be torqued back into the shear layer plane by thecounter-rotating boundary layers 30. The combined work of numerous tinycentrifugating eddies in the bulk eventually concentrates heavyfractions away from the shear layer and toward the surfaces of theimpellers where they concentrate in the boundary layers 30.Concentration of heavy fractions in the boundary layers advected by theimpellers increases toward the impellers and away from the impeller axisa-a.

Advection radially outward from the axis a-a preferentially affectsheavy fractions, which, due to eddy centrifugation, are in highconcentration in the boundary layer 30. Source flow therefore compriseshigh concentrations of heavy fractions. Once past the turbulent ring,the concentrated heavy fraction stream and its carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx,particulates, mercury, and injected liquid are churned in extremeturbulence in the expansion ring 25. Because nitrogen ballast is axiallyextracted through the radial vortices, scrubbing targets areconcentrated in this turbulence. Gases produced by sorbent reactions areextracted away from the reaction zones at the turbulent vortexperipheries into the turbulent vortex axes. Precipitates andagglomerated aerosols are shear thickened into clumps, and the clumpssnowball as they tumble in the turbulence, becoming larger clumps.

Recirculation flow pressure 32 from the tank (not shown) and drag forcefrom turbulent impedance of source flow oppose radially outward sourceflow between the impellers, but the heavy fractions gain enough momentumfrom the impellers to pass into the tank despite the opposition. Saidopposition preferentially advects light fractions, which are in highconcentration in the shear layer and therefore receive little momentumfrom the impellers.

At the expansion ring 25 there is high turbulence between the impellers,which concentrates light fractions at vortex axes. The eddy vortices arelow pressure gradients serving as capillaries for sink flow squeezedradially inward by the back pressure 32. The radial vortices collect theflow from the capillaries in the expansion ring as well as the mixingzones 22 of the turbulent ring 24 and the laminar ring 23.

Sink flow through the axial exhaust port 9 and the axial exhaust conduit10 comprises high concentrations of light fractions. The sink flow couldbecome the feed for a second device of the same design, in a cascade, soas to purify the light fraction stream prior to discharge into theatmosphere. The preferred embodiment of the present invention is asimple, low-tech device easily scalable to separate high volume dirtyhot waste gas streams.

FIG. 3 b shows another cross-section of the work space 3 as seen fromthe impeller axis a-a. A boundary layer 30 is in contact with thesurfaces of the impellers 4, 5, and boundary layer source flow is intothe page due to impeller counter-rotation, shown by the arrows. Radialvortices 21 co-rotate clockwise as shown by arrows. The radial vorticesare conduits for sink flow, out of the page. Adjacent vortices rotatecounterclockwise, and smaller and smaller vortices appear between theradial vortices 21. The space between radial vortices is a mixing zone22. All vortices, whether large or small, are driven by the forcingregime of the impellers and the axial pump.

In the mixing zones 22 between the radial vortices, eddies, orfine-scale vortices, rotate in different directions, as shown. Thecomplex vortex structure in the mixing zone 22 comprises shells andvoids in a chaotic sponge; the representation in this drawing is merelya crude illustration of the complexity. In each vortex, radialstratification by density separates light from heavy fractions in thefeed gas. Peripheries of adjacent turbulent eddy vortices grindtogether, thus contacting, pressuring, and mixing the heavy fractions,such as injected liquid and particulates, NOx, SOx, and condensiblevapors. Slurry from mixing injected liquid with particulates and otheraerosols shear thickens into clumps of sludge as the vortex peripheriesgrind on each other. Clumps tumbling in the turbulence agglomerate andadhere aerosols. Momentum of clumps advected radially outward assistssource flow through the turbulent ring 24.

Two simultaneous radial stratifications separate the feed gas: one inthe vortices of turbulence, which are in a plane normal to the axis a-a,and another in source-sink flow with respect to the axis a-a. Thecombination of the two simultaneous radial stratifications causesdifferential radial advection of heavy and light fractions, with heavyfractions going radially outward from the impeller axis of rotation, andlight fractions going radially inward through radial vortices. See FIG.5.

FIG. 4 is a detail of the tank shown in FIG. 1. The interior of the tank13 communicates with the work space 3 of the impeller assembly 19. Thetank is pressurized by the impeller assembly 19, which forces fluid intothe tank through the periphery 12. Seals 29 between the tank wall andthe impellers 4,5 provide means for maintaining the tank pressure andfor isolating the tank interior from the atmosphere. Vanes 6 on theimpellers 4,5 impel fluid into the tank and also create high shear inthe tank. High shear in combination with back pressure 32 creates highturbulence and therefore causes excellent mixing of scrubbing targetswith sorbents, and of fly ash with injected liquid.

The flare section 18 of the impeller assembly forms a convergent nozzlewhich concentrates the recirculating flow pressure 32 into the shearlayer between the impellers. The back pressure squeezes sink flowthrough the vortices and increases residence time of heavy fractions inthe turbulence.

Flow through the periphery 12 into the tank 13 is a concentrated streamof carbon dioxide. Preferably, suitable cooling means 26 cool the tankwalls. Said cooling means 26 could be of many types known to the art,including a water jacket connected to a brine chiller and means forcirculation of brine through the water jacket and the chiller. A gasvent 27 emits a concentrated and pressurized stream of carbon dioxideout of the tank. A follow-on device of the same design shown in FIG. 1accepts the output of the gas vent as its feed and further concentratesand cleans the carbon dioxide stream, if necessary.

Liquids and solids passing through the periphery 12 along with thecarbon dioxide collect at the bottom of the tank and pass through apurge pump 28 to disposal by suitable means.

FIG. 5 shows a cutaway side view of a radial vortex near the axialexhaust port 9 shown in FIG. 1 while the apparatus is in operation. Theradial vortex axis b-b lies approximately in a plane normal to the axisa-a of the impellers and in a shear layer between the impellers. Werethe radial vortex axis orientation other than parallel to the impellers,torque on the axis b-b from the counter-rotating impellers would twistit back into the plane of the shear layer. Exact counter-rotation of theimpellers keeps the radial vortex axis approximately straight and normalto the axis a-a.

The radial vortex 21 is a coherent structure in the turbulence forced bymomentum transport from rotation of the impellers and by suction of anaxial pump, in an open system. An array of radial vortices sets up inthe shear layer as flow occurs through the apparatus shown in FIG. 1.The impellers and the axial pump stretch the radial vortex axis b-b.

Source flow, i.e. flow away from the axis a-a, is shown by the arrowspointing left. Sink flow, i.e. flow radially inward through the workspace 3 toward the axis a-a, is shown by the arrows pointing right.Magnitude of the vectors is indicated by the length of the arrows. Bothflows are helical about approximately the same axis of rotation b-b.Whether a fluid element (particle) flows radially inward or outward withrespect to the axis a-a in the radial vortex depends on its distancefrom the radial vortex axis b-b. Particles distal to the axis b-b flowradially outward from the axis a-a in source flow, while particlesproximal to the axis b-b flow radially inward toward the axis a-a insink flow. Whether a particle is distal or proximal to the axis b-b isdetermined by its density. Radial fractionation of fluid fractions bydensity occurs within the radial vortex, and the radial fractionationdetermines whether the particle is advected radially inward or outwardwith respect to the axis a-a.

Heavy fractions, including carbon dioxide, are centrifugated away fromthe axis b-b and are advected radially outward from the axis a-a insource flow. Carbon dioxide is captured in a tank 13 in a gaseous state.The centrifugal impellers drive source flow.

Light fractions, including nitrogen and water vapor, concentrate nearthe radial vortex axis b-b and are advected radially inward in sinkflow. Pressure gradients drive sink flow, and the pressure gradients arecreated by the suction of an axial pump 11 as well as a back pressure32.

The radial vortex 21 is a sink flow conduit for light fractions to go toaxial extraction through the axial exhaust port 9. A greaterconcentration of light fractions is in the sink flow than in the feedflow, leaving a concentrated stream of heavy fractions flowing away fromthe axis a-a. The light fractions are very much more by volume (>85%)than the heavy fractions (<15%) in flue gas, so there is sufficient massflow to sustain the coherence of the radial vortices.

As flow through the work space approaches the axial exhaust port 9,heavy fractions entrained in the flow are centrifugated out from theradial vortex axis b-b to the impellers where they join flow advectedradially outward away from the axial exhaust port by contact with thetop impeller 5 and the baffle 14 which act as centrifugal impellers.

The forcing regime of differential radial advection creates helicalcounterflow (light fractions flowing in a tornado toward the axialexhaust port, heavy fractions flowing in an enveloping tornado away fromit) about the axis b-b, which is source-sink flow with respect to theimpeller axis a-a. Hence the name radial counterflow is applied to themethod of the present invention.

The density difference between carbon dioxide (44 g/mol) and nitrogen(28 g/mol) is 36%. Water vapor at 18 g/mol is even less dense thannitrogen, and the density difference between water vapor and carbondioxide is 59%. NOx and SOx are even denser than carbon dioxide, so thedensity difference between them and nitrogen is even more. Aerosols aremuch denser than said gases, so the density difference between aerosols,especially agglomerated particulates, and nitrogen gas is very verygreat. The denser the fluid fraction, the more distal it is from theaxis b-b and the more it is advected radially outward from the axis a-a.

Nitrogen, water vapor, and residual oxygen—the lightfractions—predominate in sink flow toward the axial exhaust port 9. Thenet separation effect from the forcing regime should be evident from theforegoing discussion and may be determined more exactly by experiment orcomputation by those of ordinary skill in the art.

The radial vortex exists in an open system, i.e. a system havingmaterial flow in and out more or less continuously. It is thereforedistinguishable from the radial vortices which appear under certainconditions in closed system von Karman swirling flow. Sustained coherentvortices even in highly turbulent flow are possible because the systemis open. The red spot of Jupiter is one example.

FIG. 6 shows an alternative embodiment for flue gas scrubbing,comprising a single centrifugal impeller 41 having vanes 6 on both sidesand disposed within a casing 35. A drive spindle 42 connected to a motor7 and connected to the casing through a bearing seal 39 causes thecentrifugal impeller 41 to rotate within the casing 35 and thereby toadvect feed gas from a source 1 a through an axial feed conduit 1 andinto the casing.

Scrubbing liquid from a source 20 is injected through an injection port16 into the feed gas. The scrubbing liquid mixes with the feed gas inhigh turbulence caused by shear of the fluid between the impeller andthe casing.

A tank 13 at the periphery of the casing receives flow advected by theimpeller. Rotation of the impeller 41 creates a recirculation flowpressure or back pressure 32 shown by the right-pointing arrow which isin a direction pointing toward the impeller axis of rotation. The tankcomprises a gas vent 27 for evacuating carbon dioxide and a purge pump28 for evacuating condensates, liquid, and solids. Pressure within thetank is caused by the impeller 41 driving fluid into the tank, andpressure causes mercury, NOx and SOx to condense and flow through thepurge pump.

The recirculation flow pressure 32 provides means for advection of lightfractions in sink flow radially inward toward the impeller axis a-a andinto an axial exhaust conduit 10 communicating with an axial pump 11.The axial pump is preferably a steam ejector/eductor powered byblowdown. The axial pump sucks light fractions through the axial exhaustconduit. Thus light fractions including nitrogen, water vapor, andresidual oxygen are axially extracted from the flue gas within thecasing, thereby increasing carbon dioxide concentration in the tank 13.

Shear in the work space 3 between the impeller vanes 6 and the casing 35causes high turbulence and many fine-scale eddy vortices in the workspace 3. At the axes of all vortices are low pressure gradients. In eachvortex, light fractions concentrate at the vortex axes, and heavyfractions are centrifugated to the vortex periphery. Adjacent vorticesgrind together at their peripheries, causing contact of liquid withscrubbing targets and shear thickening of scrubbing slurry.

Radial stratification by density takes place in each of the fine-scaleeddy vortices, and recirculation flow pressure 32 drives light fractionsradially inward along the eddy vortex axes and eventually into the axialexhaust conduit 10. The net effect of innumerable fine-scale vorticesworking in unison is to separate heavy from light fractions. This neteffect is harnessed by differential radial advection forced by the axialpump 11 and the centrifugal impeller 41. Both the axial pump and therecirculation flow pressure drive sink flow.

The axial pump is only one means for driving sink flow, andrecirculation flow pressure alone could be sufficient. However, forlarge scale gas separation such as flue gas at power plants, whereabundant blowdown steam is available for steam ejectors, and the volumeof nitrogen and other light fractions to be extracted is very large, anaxial pump is a preferable feature.

Flow between the impeller 41 and the casing 35 radially inward to theaxial exhaust conduit 10 will be very turbulent due to shear in thefluid between the impeller and the casing. However, there is amacroscopic forcing which organizes the behavior of fluid in this space.Next to the impeller 41 is a boundary layer which is advected radiallyoutward from the axis a-a by impeller rotation. Recirculation flowpressure 32 and the suction of the axial pump 11 drive light fractionsradially inward along the casing into the axial exhaust conduit 10. Bythe time gas reaches the axial exhaust port 9 it will have a higherconcentration of nitrogen and water vapor than the gas passing throughthe axial feed port 2. Thus nitrogen and water vapor are axiallyextracted from flue gas, leaving a concentrated carbon dioxide streamemitted through the gas vent 27.

FIG. 7 a shows the preferred drive means for causing counter-rotation ofcentrifugal impellers 4, 5 of the impeller assembly 19. A drive wheel 38connected by a drive spindle 37 to a drive motor 36 engages theimpellers at their periphery. The drive spindle goes through the tankwall and the tank and drive spindle are separated by a movable seal. Atransmission (not shown) connected to the motor and the drive spindleprovides means for high startup torque. Preferably, on startup of thepreferred embodiment, the tank is allowed to vent freely and remainunpressurized, and the impellers, which have high rotational inertia,are gradually brought up to speed before feed is introduced and the tankpressure increased by closing the gas vent 27.

Preferably, the drive wheel has a non-slip surface such that there ishigh friction between the drive wheel and the impellers. Shown is asurface having a variety of angular protrusions in differentorientations. Another alternative is cogs which fit into grooves in theimpellers, the impeller grooves being unobstructed channels for flow ofsludge radially outward and into the tank. Other suitable means forincreasing the friction between the drive wheel and the impellersinclude rubber and abrasive surfaces. Rotation of the drive wheel drivesthe impellers in opposite directions at the same angular velocity. Thedrive spindle engages the tank 13 at a bearing seal 39. The drive wheelprovides means for maintaining the impellers at a certain separationdistance.

FIG. 7 b shows a top view of the preferred embodiment, comprising threeequidistantly spaced preferred counter-rotation drive means of FIG. 7 a.Three or more drive units provide means for maintaining the impellersseparated, and more units are preferable so that if one unit breaksduring operation, it may be put into free wheeling mode until repair canbe done.

Having the benefit in hindsight of instruction provided by the abovedetailed description of the present invention, and the exposition of theproblem to be solved and the prior art, those skilled in the art ofemissions control or centrifugal gas separation will see obviousmodifications which may be made to the invention. It is not intendedthat the admitted possibility of such future modifications should implyany admission by the inventor that the best mode for practicing theinvention has not been disclosed. The best mode presently known to theinventor for the particular application to flue gas concentration andscrubbing has been disclosed. Future improvements or modifications byothers should not alter or nullify the effect of the claims.

Nor should instructed hindsight on the part of those of more thanordinary skill in the particular art affected by the present inventionbe admitted as ex post facto evidence to the effect that the presentinvention was obvious or that they could easily have conceived it hadthey bothered, when the serious problem of flue gas pollution and globalwarming has remained unsolved by so many for so long.

Obviously, cascading devices according to the present invention wouldimprove collection efficiency. In other words, the light fraction streamcoming from the axial exhaust conduit 10 is fed into a second device andseparated further, and so on, until the light fraction stream is readyfor discharge or for use. Also, the heavy fraction stream coming fromthe tank vent 27 is made the feed for a second device, etc.

It should also be apparent to those of ordinary skill in various otherarts what particular application may be made given the disclosure in thepresent invention. Dry scrubbing as well as wet scrubbing is included.Dry particulate matter coheres by van der Waals forces due to numerousinelastic collisions in a highly turbulent environment with gas beingcontinuously extracted so as to remove the envelope of gas particlesfrom the scrubbing targets. Many applications to separation of fluidmixtures other than flue gas are possible and should be obvious, alongwith necessary modifications.

For example, natural gas scrubbing could be accomplished by the presentinvention, with methane being the light fraction axially extracted, andhydrogen sulfide, condensible vapors, carbon dioxide, and water beingamong the heavy fractions advected radially outward to compression in atank and scrubbed in high turbulence.

Vacuum cleaners using axially-fed counter-rotating centrifugal impellerswould exhaust clean gas and agglomerate even fine dry particles by vander Waals forces in highly turbulent conditions at the impellerperiphery.

Improved air cleaners for mine or building ventilation are anotherobvious application of the teachings herein. Therefore, it is notintended that the scope of the invention be limited to the specificembodiments described, which are merely illustrative of the presentinvention, i.e. the disclosed apparatus and method for radialcounterflow gas separation and highly turbulent scrubbing, and notintended to have the effect of limiting the scope of the claims exceptas specifically stated in the claims.

1. A method of mechanical carbon capture to separate carbon dioxide gasfrom a gaseous emission stream, the gaseous emission stream comprisinglight fractions and heavy fractions, the method comprising thesimultaneous steps of: feeding the gaseous emission stream axially intoa work space between coaxial counter-rotating centrifugal impellers,causing flow of heavy fractions, including carbon dioxide gas, radiallyoutward through the work space and into a tank, causing flow of lightfractions, including nitrogen gas, radially inward through the workspace, and axially extracting light fractions from between theimpellers.
 2. The method of claim 1, additionally including the furthersimultaneous steps of injecting scrubbing liquid into the gaseousemission stream and purging liquid and agglomerated solids from thetank.
 3. Apparatus for separating a gaseous fluid mixture, the mixturecomprising light fractions and heavy fractions, the apparatuscomprising: an impeller assembly, the impeller assembly comprising:coaxial counter-rotatable centrifugal impellers connected to mechanicalmeans for causing counter-rotation and defining between them a workspace, the impellers providing means for advecting heavy fractionsradially outward, an axial feed port providing means for introducing thegaseous fluid mixture into the work space while the impellers arecounter-rotating, and an axial exhaust port communicating with means foraxially extracting light fractions from the work space; means foradvecting fluid radially inward through the work space to the axialexhaust port while the impellers are counter-rotating; and a static tankcommunicating with the work space and disposed about the impellerassembly, the tank providing means for pressurizing and collecting heavyfractions, including carbon dioxide gas.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3,additionally comprising a baffle connected by vanes to an impellerhaving an axial feed port.
 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein theimpellers of the impeller assembly vary in their separation distanceradially outward from the impeller axis of rotation, forming a pinchsection and a flare section.
 6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein theimpellers comprise vanes.
 7. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the tankcomprises a gas vent for evacuating gaseous carbon dioxide and a purgepump for evacuating liquids and agglomerated solids.
 8. The apparatus ofclaim 3 additionally comprising means for injecting scrubbing liquidinto the gaseous emission stream.
 9. Apparatus for separating a gaseousmixture, the mixture comprising light fractions and heavy fractions, theapparatus comprising: a casing comprising an axial feed port and anaxial exhaust port, the casing also comprising at its periphery a gasvent for evacuation of non-condensible gases and a purge pump forevacuation of liquids and solids, a centrifugal impeller connected tomechanical means for causing rotation, the impeller being disposedwithin the casing and defining a flow path radially outward between theimpeller and the casing on the side of the casing having the axial feedport and a flow path radially inward between the impeller and the casingon the side of the casing having the axial exhaust port, the centrifugalimpeller and its drive means providing means for advecting heavyfractions radially outward, and means for advecting light fractionsthrough said radially inward flow path and through the axial exhaustport while the impeller rotates within the casing.
 10. The apparatus ofclaim 9, additionally comprising means for injection of scrubbing liquidinto the gaseous mixture.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein theimpeller comprises vanes on both sides.
 12. Apparatus for natural gasseparation, comprising: an impeller assembly, the impeller assemblycomprising: coaxial counter-rotatable centrifugal impellers connected tomeans for causing counter-rotation thereof and defining between them awork space, the impellers providing means for advecting natural gasradially outward, an axial feed port providing means for introducingnatural gas to the work space while the impellers are counter-rotating,and an axial exhaust port communicating with means for axiallyextracting methane from the work space while the impellerscounter-rotate; and a static tank communicating with the work space anddisposed about the impeller assembly, the tank being pressurized by flowthrough the work space and providing means for collecting concentratedheavy fractions including condensible vapors, water, mercury,mercaptans, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide.
 13. Apparatus forturbulent scrubbing of a gaseous mixture, the gaseous mixture comprisingscrubbing targets and light fractions including nitrogen gas, theapparatus comprising means for injecting scrubbing sorbents and/orliquid into the gaseous mixture; an impeller assembly, the impellerassembly comprising coaxial counter-rotatable centrifugal impellersconnected to mechanical means for counter-rotation thereof and definingbetween them a work space, the impellers providing means for advectingfluid radially outward, an axial feed port providing means forintroducing the gaseous fluid mixture to the work space while theimpellers are counter-rotating, and an axial exhaust port communicatingwith means for axially extracting light fractions from the work spacewhile the impellers counter-rotate; means for advecting light fractionsradially inward to the axial exhaust port while the impellers arecounter-rotating; and a static tank having an interior communicatingwith the work space, the tank being disposed about the impeller assemblyand the tank being pressurized by flow through the work space, and theback pressure from the tank in combination with shear from the impellerassembly providing means for causing high turbulence in concentratedscrubbing targets, the tank comprising a gas vent for evacuatingnon-condensible gases and a purge pump for evacuating liquids andsolids.
 14. The turbulent scrubber of claim 13, comprising means forshear thickening of fly ash slurry.